Currently- The Best One EVER

This week has been THE best week ever, bar none. So many amazing things keep happening, one right after the other! God has been SO good and I can’t thank anyone but him for all the blessings that have been pouring down.

LISTENING: I love finding new music. I also love when music I’ve loved for a long time finds me again! Here’s what I’ve been loving this week:
>> SECRETS
Listen to: forever and never (acoustic version), dance of the dead (acoustic version, but here’s the normal version) which I also LOVE.
>> BIG DATA
Listen to: the business of emotion (love her girl powerhouse voice!)
>> BAD & THE UGLY
Listen to: my empty ghost. Loving their harmonies and indie country sound, their melodies are very City & Colour.
>> DENISON WITMER
Listen to: little flowers. Love his voice and guitar skills! John and I discovered him on Tuesday.
>> IRON & WINE
Listen to: upward over the mountain. When this song came Pandora the other day, John swept me off my feet into a slow dance across the floor of his studio. Love him to death and after. <3

FEELING: overjoyed, completely head over heels, ecstatic, filled with happiness, and soooo blessed. Life is so good, especially right now becauseeee I’m…..

PLANNING: myyyy W E D D I N G!!! 😀 Surprise, friends!! I got engaged on Monday May 18th 2015 to the man of my dreams, my best friend, and my heart’s soulmate. John designed the most perfect, gorgeous ring that is so fitting for my personality, and you bet I stinkin cried when he got down on one knee and started telling me the sweetest words before asking me to be his for life! You can read all about our proposal story and how we met on How He Asked.

LOVING: All of the great things that have happened this week in my life! It’s been an unreal week full of surprises. Here are some of them:

>> Even though I knew John was the One since day one and we both knew we would end up together, him asking me to marry him with the prettiest ring with my favorite color as the center stone was the best experience in the world.

>> We get to fly to Portland to celebrate with his family in 2 weeks and take our engagement photos with the lovely and ever so talented Victoria Carlson!  I adore her style and can’t wait to get our engagement photos done by her 🙂 Being a wedding photographer, I’m always the one behind the camera so it will be fun to play dress up with John and be the ones getting photographed! And it will be done in our favorite place ever–the scenic PNW!

>> I just got a new full time job as the Elementary Education Director for Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego, CA. I was SO excited to start this job because a) it’s my first full-time official job with my own desk and computer and phone, b) I get to work with other believers, c) I get to implement my design and artist skills, and d) I get to work with KIDS!! How fun right!? 😀

>> I met up with one of my great girlfriends for my belated birthday dinner at Cucina Urbana on Wednesday night and we had the best spare rib pasta and chocolate tiramisu dessert. It was to dieeee for.

>> Stick & Stone Co. is doing really really well with sales on Etsy, everyone is LOVING my tassels on etsy and I’m even having a hard time keeping up with all the orders because my tassels sell out so fast!

>> I went to Disneyland with my mom yesterday to celebrate Disneyland’s 60th anniversary! It was so funnnnn. I’ll make a blog post about it soon!

>> PLUS I just got my grades for my second semester of grad school and I got straight A’s AGAIN!!! 😀 Woo Woo! Hard work and dedication pays off, ya’ll!

  

^ please excuse my awkward orange band-aid finger in this photo…I sliced it open bad on Tuesday night while cutting pineapple. Eek.

THINKING: I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am today. I’ve walked through the darkest valleys and have climbed the highest mountains…everything I have gone through, the good and the hard, has reminded me put my faith where it belongs always: with Jesus. I can’t give the glory and credit for my success to anyone else besides Him. I couldn’t be more thankful for such a blessed life to live!

READING: my first pair of wedding magazines, yay! I feel like I’m part of an exclusive club. Like I’m actually allowed to talk about weddings and planning and my ideas and call John my FEYONCE (the other night John was like “you’re my Beyonce but with a FEEE <3) On the way to the beach on Tuesday, John and I stopped at Barnes & Nobel, and I bought Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine, and Exquisite Wedding Magazine.  I really loved these two specifically because both had a more artistic and non-traditional approach to wedding planning and design, which is very much how I roll. Bright colors, flowers galore, simple boho dresses, natural elements, DIY artistic decor…it’s my natural habitat!

MAKING: A decadent chocolate cake for my brother Anthony’s 25 birthday tonight. He and I are 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day apart. He has this great blog called Stuff Grads Like and he writes about how to handle all of the “now whats”  that life has to offer you as a college grad, as well as how to survive the world post college. He’s very funny, witty, smart, and knowledgeable on all things life. But like I said, he’s taken. Sorry girls! 😉

DAYDREAMING: About planning mine and John’s wedding. If you know me personally, you’ll know that my wedding will be anything but ordinary, full of color, artistic, very DIY, and a mix of boho meets California meets Northwest vibes (and if you don’t know me personally, well that’s okay because you’ll get to the more you read my blog hehe). I can’t wait to start planning the decor and color scheme 🙂 I mean have you SEEN my pinterest boards on wedding DIY ideas? Weee!